The grass is so rank in its growth that one can not see the black alluvial soil of the bottom of this periodical lake.

Even when the grass falls down in winter, or is "laid" by its own weight, one is obliged to lift the feet so high, to avoid being tripped up by it, as to make walking excessively fatiguing.
Young leches are hidden beneath it by their dams; and the Makololo youth complain of being unable to run in the Barotse land on this account.
There was evidently no healthy spot in this quarter; and the current of the river being about four and a half miles per hour (one hundred yards in sixty seconds), I imagined we might find what we needed in the higher lands, from which the river seemed to come.

I resolved, therefore, to go to the utmost limits of the Barotse country before coming to a final conclusion.

Katongo was the best place we had seen; but, in order to accomplish a complete examination, I left Sekeletu at Naliele, and ascended the river.

He furnished me with men, besides my rowers, and among the rest a herald, that I might enter his villages in what is considered a dignified manner.